AN: So one of my lovely reviewers suggested I get a beta for this story to help with proofreading. Is anyone interested? PM if you are. I also went through and updated and edited minor details of the first two chapters. And in this chapter we meet some familiar faces! T
Longbourn
September 1794
The next day as Robert Bennet was breaking his fast, his sister, Sophia, sat down at the table with him.
"Do not leave me here, Robert," she begged as tears shone in her eyes. "Fanny and Betty will do all they can to make me miserable."
"There there, sweetling, do not cry. I have business to take care of in Oxford, but I shall take you to London and then Lyme Park upon my return. I'm sure Lucy will be glad for your company - Jane, Elizabeth and Mary are driving her to distraction I'm sure."
Sophia laughed quietly, wiping away her tears. "Jane is so sweet, she could never upset anyone. Lizzy, on the other hand, has such a free spirit - she reminds me of you - and Mary is too young to cause such mischief."
"I shall talk to father at once and see if he can spare you for until January, unless you wish to participate in the season."
"Oh, brother, you would let me? I know how much you and father hate Town!"
"For you, sweetling, I would do anything. Anyways, 'tis unfair for father and I to keep you here, and out of the way of making a good match."
"Oh, do you really think he will let me have a season?"
"Yes, sweetling, I will make sure of it."
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"Father, I want to take Sophia back to Lyme Park and to London for a season," Robert said, standing in the doorway of his father's study.
His father peered up from the estate books and glared at his son. "After what happened, do you really think that is best?"
"Yes, I shall write to Lucy's parents and my Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Hugh to find suitable events for us to attend in town. That wife of yours is not helping Sophia get ready for her presentation at court. She is too vulgar to be in even this small, unvarying society. I really think not letting the girls go to Town has hurt their marriage prospects and made them targets of fortune hunters. No men of equal standing live near here, so their only option is those beneath them."
"I'd never thought YOU of all people would give yourself airs. Do you think you're better than everyone around here?" his father seethed.
"Yes, father. I know I almost made the same mistake you did and let myself be forever tied to a woman with a beautiful face and no sense. So let us give Sophia a chance to meet someone of her standing. My wife can have her ready for the season in a few months," Robert replied.
"I see, do what you wish," Henry said, more disappointed with his son than ever.
"I'll be back in a Sen'night for Sophia," Robert said as he walked out of his father's study.
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As Sophia Bennet climbed into her brother's carriage and looked back at Longbourn, she felt a deep chill, like something was going to happen and her life was going to change forever, and if she got everything she prayed for, she would never have to return to Longbourn for more than a short visit.
"Sophia, we need to talk," Robert said as he frowned his face, which caused a wrinkle to form on his forehead.
"Yes brother, what is wrong?" Sophia replied with concern.
"After this business with Fanny and her husband, I think we should tell people your dowry is only £5000 pounds when we get to town. You are not well-known because father hates town and I have only have been in town sparingly, because of Lucy, and people will believe that is a suitable dowry coming from Longbourn," Robert told his sister.
"But what about the rest of my dowry and my estate from mama? Why are we hiding that if it could help me make a good match?" Sophia questioned.
"I want you to marry for love, like I did with Lucy and Papa did with our Mama, not be taken in by a fortune hunter and have a marriage like Fanny," Robert responded.
"But what if the man I love is poor and doesn't think he can support me in a way I am used to?" Sophia asked, still not convinced.
"If he's in love with you he'll still propose. I'm quite certain of that," Robert said smugly.
Sophia shot her brother a puzzled look, but didn't question him out loud.
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Granville House, London
September 1794
"Wake up, sweetling, we're here," Robert whispered to his sister.
Sophia opened her eyes and climbed out of the carriage to take in the grandeur that was Granville House, located in the Park Lane area of Mayfair. The House was known to have a ballroom large enough to hold more than 20 couples dancing, and the largest and best dinner parties. Sophia had to regain her composure, because it was still September and the season was months away, and soon she would be removing to Cheshire to Lyme Park and she had to prepare for the journey up north.
"We'll be back for the season soon enough," a female voice said, breaking her dreamlike thoughts.
"Lucy!" Sophia squealed to her sister in-law and embraced her.
Lucy and Sophia were opposites in looks. Lucy was short and curvy with long dark hair and blue eyes, while Sophia was a tall, classical beauty with the signature blonde hair and green eyes shared by her elder brother.
"Aunt Sopy is here!" Lizzy the three-year-old called out to her four-year-old sister Jane, pulling her along to greet their aunt.
The sisters broke their embrace so Sophie could greet her nieces. "Hello Lizzy, I hope you have not been getting up to too much mischief."
Elizabeth giggled at batted her eyes, as if she were the most well-behaved child in all of England and not the playful scamp she was. She was the picture of her mother, but she had gotten the Bennet green eyes that her father also shared, which was the opposite of Jane who had the blonde Bennet hair and looked like her grandmother except for her mother's blue eyes.
Sophia put Lizzy down and was hugging Jane when she asked, "Where's Mare?"
Jane replied, "She's sleeping. Shhhh!"
"Okay, I shall be very quiet, but you two have to go back to the nursery." Jane and Lizzy didn't look pleased but didn't argue. When taking the girls back to the nursery, Sophia got a glimpse of the one-year old with sandy brown hair, and just as she was leaving Mary opened her big green eyes, looked at her Aunt, and started wailing.
"I told you to be quiet," Jane said despondently.
"I shall get her," called Lucy, sending away her wet nurse.
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"Rise and shine! Dear sister of mine, WE are going shopping!" Lucy sang while opening the curtains of her sister's bed chamber.
"What time is it?" Sophia said groggily.
"Just past seven."
"Why are you up so early? Now I know where Lizzy gets it from."
"Come downstairs and break your fast. I want to take a walk in Hyde Park before the Fashionable Hour."
Sophia groaned.
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Hyde Park, London
September 1794
The weather outside was perfect for walking and asking her sister about her brother's puzzling statement in the carriage.
As they found Lucy's favorite path, she asked her sister about her brother's statement about love in the carriage.
Lucy laughed. "Do you know, Sophia, that your brother didn't think he was good enough for me, an heiress with a £25,000 dowry and 2 estates, but he still proposed?"
"I thought our fathers arranged your marriage?" Sophia asked.
"They did. After my father started at Oxford your father befriended him, while the other gentlemen said he still had the stench of trade. Even though my grandfather had an estate, he didn't sell his business. My father sold the business after he purchased second estate from a man in great debt. Our fathers became great friends and my father promised to marry his daughter, if he had one, to your father's heir with a hefty dowry. Little did they know that neither one of us would be inclined to marry. I didn't want my husband to have control over me or my estates. And your brother told your father all women were silly creatures and he didn't need a wife. This was all because a woman he wanted to court told him that she loved him and then went and married someone with a bigger estate," Lucy explained to her sister.
"But how did you fall in love and get married?" Sophia inquired.
"Your father reminded him your mother wasn't silly, so there was a possibility I wasn't silly, but he had to meet me to find out. So your father and brother came for a month visit to see if we suited each other, and a proposal would be made at the end of the visit. I thought your brother rather handsome, but I tried everything to scare him away," Lucy confessed.
"What did you do?" Sophia asked
"I rode my horse astride when showing him around the estate, I talked of books - not novels but Shakespeare, Voltaire and Swift - politics and estate managing, I told him I hate playing pianoforte, painting, drawing, balls, and I beat him in chess thrice. I thought that would send him running, but he proposed in a fortnight," Lucy said, smiling at the memory
Sophia giggled. "It took him an entire fortnight?! After you beat him in chess I'm surprised he didn't propose then and there."
Lucy laughed. "He told me afterwards he wanted to but he thought I was too good for him; he eventually drove himself mad thinking about it, so that he just proposed in front of our fathers and kissed me when I said yes. It was quite shocking."
Lucy and Sophia were in a fit of laughter and they did not notice Sophia had dropped her shawl, and a handsome stranger had picked it up, until he called out.
"Miss! Miss! I believe you dropped this." He held out the shawl for Sophia to take. Sophia blushed and took the shawl from him. She tried not to make eye contact when the handsome stranger said, "We wouldn't want pretty ladies catching a chill now would we?" Sophia smiled and looked into his eyes. She wanted to say thank you, but couldn't find her words. Instead, she felt a chill like the one she felt when leaving Longbourn. A change was coming.
Lucy quickly and politely thanked the stranger and pulled her sister down the path. The handsome stranger was watching as they walked down the lane.
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Bond Street, London
September 1794
The ladies left the park to return home and take the carriage to the haberdashers, milliners and finally to Madame Devy's on Bond St.
"Mrs. Bennet, what a pleasure to see you again!"
"Bonjour Madame Devy, this is my sister, Miss Bennet, and she is in need of some new dresses, a pelisse and riding habit for the trip north, and to start her new wardrobe for the upcoming season as well as a dress for her presentation at court," Lucy said.
Miss Bennet smiled at the older, well-dressed woman, and showed her the fabrics she picked and the styles and cuts she wanted. Madame Devy smiled and agreed on.
"Ahh yes, you will do well catching the eye of many men, so it is only right that we make sure you are dressed in the finest dresses," Madame Devy said.
As the Bennet ladies left Madame Devy's, Sophia was nearly knocked over upon her exit out of the modiste, but a large hand caught her wrist and helped her regain her balance. As she looked up into her savior and injurer's eyes she recognized them immediately.
"Sorry, miss. I need to watch where I'm going. Are you quite alright?" said the handsome stranger.
"I'm fine. Thank you for saving me and for your assistance earlier," Sophia said, finding the voice she had lost earlier.
"It is quite all right, though if I may be so bold to say it, I hope the next time I see you we will be in a place where I can get an introduction to the beauty before me," the stranger replied.
Sophia blushed again and Lucy smiled and pulled her into the carriage and set off back to Granville house.
AN: Any guesses on who the handsome stranger is? Make sure you guess in the review! Remember we are in flashback time.
